CAST INTO DOUBT (Patricia MacDonald)

If you are looking for a terrific thriller, place a hold on this one right now!  Patricia MacDonald never disappoints, providing nail-biting psychological suspense that makes this one a real page-turner.  Shelby Sloan is a 42-year-old grandmother and career woman who surprises her happily married daughter, Chloe, and son-in-law, Rob, with a relaxing Caribbean cruise and an offer to babysit for Jeremy, her 4 year old grandson, at their home while they are gone.  When a distraught Rob calls to inform Shelby that Chloe has disappeared from the cruise ship, Shelby flies to St. Thomas and invests her life savings in continuing the search for her daughter.  When all hope is lost for her daughter's survival, Shelby begins investigating her daughter's disappearance on her own with the help of her company's security chief, meeting many roadblocks along the way as she gathers information about Chloe's last hours on the cruise.  I won't say any more because I don't want to ruin the story.  Read it!  You'll love it!

MINI SHOPAHOLIC (Sophie Kinsella)

Those of you who have been following the adventures of Becky Bloomwood Brandon will enjoy "Mini Shopaholic."  Hard as it may be to believe (haha!), Becky's 2-year-old daughter Minnie is out of control and apparently following in her mother's footsteps where retail is concerned. 

Becky and Luke are living with Becky's parents after several real estate deals fall through, leaving them perpetually homeless.  Luke, who has, as usual, been working too hard, is still mourning the death of his beloved stepmother and is estranged from Elinor, his emotionally cold birth mother. Becky decides that a surprise party would be a great way to cheer Luke up, so she secretly enlists the help of his secretary, Bonnie, to help her with the guest list.  She also decides that in the spirit of economy (she has maxed out all of her credit cards and promised Luke that she will not buy any new clothes until she has worn the ones she already owns 3 times) she will barter for services and purchase decorations for the party at a discount shop.  Luke, perplexed by Becky's strange behavior (how hard it is to keep such a major secret!) and worried about Minnie's tantrums, hires the trendy Nanny Sue to evaluate their parenting skills and Minnie's attitudes, convincing Becky that her child is about to be torn from her arms and sent to a baby boot camp in Arizona.

Kinsella has once again created a enjoyable glimpse into the chaotic and slightly off-kilter world of Becky Bloomwood.  This is a wonderful light read, perfect for a lazy weekend when you just want to relax, put your feet up, and give your mind a little rest.  Keeping up with Becky's activities might not be so relaxing, though!

OPEN SEASON (Archer Mayor)

No wonder the Joe Gunther series is so successful!  This is Mayor's first foray into mystery writing and if you live in New England like I do you will thoroughly enjoy the atmosphere that this author creates.  Read the whole series if you enjoy a slightly gritty police procedural with a tremendous sense of place.  The wonderful details pay tribute to Mayor's own background as a Vermont police officer and forensic investigator.

THE TEA HOUSE ON MULBERRY STREET (Sharon Owens)

Penny Stanley and her husband, Daniel, run Muldoon's Tea House in Belfast.  While she longs for beauty and a family, he saves every penny and refuses to redecorate or consider having a child.  An assortment of characters, including a young woman obsessed with Nicholas Cage, a magazine editor searching for her lost sweetheart, and a lonely married bookshop owner whose wife is preoccupied with money and status, frequent the shop despite its dreary, outdated decor and somber atmnosphere.  This book didn't "wow" me, but I always enjoy the concept of disparate characters coming together on common ground to work through life's problems.

DEATH AT THE ALMA MATER (G.M. Malliet)

There is something so appealing about a lovely British college, castle, or village as the setting for murder!  G.M. Malliet writes in the tradition of Agatha Christie and this 3rd in the Arthur St. Just series is just as good as the first two.  Here, wealthy alumni are invited for a weekend reunion at financially troubled St. Michael's College in Cambridge in hopes of raising some much needed cash.  Any mystery fan knows that gathering a diverse group of  people with  past connections for the weekend will not end in anything good.  Here the murder victim is the beautiful Lexy Laurent, ex-wife of Sir James Bassett and renowned for her beauty and fashion sense.  When she is strangled in the college's boathouse, suspects abound, including her ex-husband, his stepson, his current wife, and almost everyone else at the reunion.  This mystery is great fun with clever and unexpected twist that helps to solve the murder.  Recommended!

VICTIM IN VICTORIA STATION (Jeanne Dams)

I know, I know.  I just can't stop reading about the adventures of Dorothy Martin!  This story is a bit unusual in that Dorothy is working independently, i.e. without police involvement, to solve a murder that only she and the murderers know actually happened.  After enjoying the comapany of young American businessman Bill Monaghan on the train to London, Dorothy is dismayed to learn that her new acquaintance has succumbed to an apparent heart attack.  A doctor who happens by assures her that he will take care of arrangements, so she heads to her orthopedist's appointment and scours the papers the next day looking for information about the unusual death.  She finally calls the police and is told that they have had no reports of a death in Victoria Station.  Since her husband, retired policeman Alan Nesbitt, is in Zimbabwe, Dorothy enlists the help of Tom and Lynn Alexander, her London-based American friends, and young Nigel, a computer expert, to find out who Bill Monaghan was and why he disappeared.  Dorothy arranges, with Tom's help, to work at the London office of Multilinks, Monaghan's software company, in an effort to gather information.  The combination of familiar, entertaining characters, a sub-plot of technolgical intrigue, and Dorothy's own down-to-earth investigative skills make this another appealing mystery by Jeanne Dams.

FEED ME (Edited by Harriet Brown)

Subtitled Writers Dish About Food, Eating, Weight, and Body Image, this book of essays is a must-read for any woman, of any age, who has ever felt inadequate about herself. 

Each of the contributors writes from personal experience on subjects ranging from cultural customs, eating disorders, family pressure, shopping for clothes, feminism, grief, health food, and cooking as an expression of love.  One size 14 author recounts her experience shopping with a thin friend in trendy stores where the "plus sizes" (bigger than 6!) are stored in the back room, presumably to avoid shocking the more desirable thin shoppers.  Another describes her Jordanian family, where eating without utensils is the norm and feeding children huge, choking portions of food by hand is considered an expression of love.

One woman, whose father grew up starving in Eastern Europe during WWII, learned to eat with lightening speed in order to avoid having her father finish off her food after gobbling up his own.   After several choking episodes she finally learns as an adult to slow down  and chew.  Another writes about her arrival at college, where the astounding excesses of food in the dining hall seem like miracle to her after years of living with a mother whose cooking repertoire consisted of 4 inedible meals and who never gave a second thought to keeping enough food in the house to satisfy her hungry children. 

The most memorable essay is the story of a woman overcome by grief after her fiancé dies unexpectedly just 2 weeks before their wedding.  After consulting psychics, therapists, and medical doctors in an effort to assuage her grief, she meets a man and moves in with him after only 3 weeks.  As their relationship develops he begins to undermine her self-esteem by controlling her eating and criticizing her whenever she eats high calorie treats, but she stays with him because she is afraid to be alone.  One day she shares a dessert with a friend, taking a very small sliver of cake under her boyfriend's disapproving gaze, and he responds by asking her how she can do that to herself, be so uncaring about her weight and her looks (despite the fact that everyone else who cares has told her that she is gaunt and too thin).  Eventually she meets a man who loves her normal-sized self as she is and suggest sharing TWO desserts so they can each try both.

Feed Me is more than a book about food.  It is a book about learning to nurture body and soul, to be healthy and happy and fulfilled as a woman and a person, to accept that real beauty comes from within no matter what size you are on the outside.  I've described just a few of these often poignant, always insightful essays. I hated finishing the last one.  These are not "fat" stories or a collection of essays by people who have overcome various eating disorders, although some of them have.  They are thoughtful vignettes from the lives of real women who are not afraid to admit that they are not perfect.

CAKE BOSS; STORIES AND RECIPES FROM MIA FAMIGLIA (Buddy Valastro)

If you like TLC's Cake Boss, or even if you have never seen the show but share Buddy's Italian heritage, you will enjoy this memoir.  This is not a book designed to promote a television show.  It is a heartfelt tribute to Buddy's parents and grandmothers, an appreciation of the hard work that went into building a life in America while maintaining family ties to Italy.  It is also the story of a brash teenager who disliked schoolwork, loved hanging out with his pals, and wasn't above accepting privileges born of his teachers' concern that his family might be connected with the Mafia (it isn't).  Buddy describes his growing love of and affinity for baking and his joy in discovering that he has his father's hands, hands that could pipe frosting with precision and work various doughs to perfection.  At the age of 54 Buddy Valastro, Sr. died of lung cancer, leaving 17-year-old Buddy to drop out of high school and become a full-time baker in the family business, working alongside his mother, 4 older sisters, and various other family members.

Buddy Valastro has a talent for dealing with people that has served him well in the family business.  He is hard-working, creative, and dedicated, motivated solely by his love of family and tradition.  His love for his wife and children and for the family he grew up in shines through in this enjoyable book.  I would recommend it!

A HIGHLAND CHRISTMAS (M.C. Beaton)

Unlike most of Hamish MacBeth's adventures, this one does not include a murder.  Instead, Hamish is called to investigate a set of stolen Christmas lights in a town where celebration of the holiday is frowned upon.  As usual, Hamish is brilliant and Blair is a stupid jerk, just the way we like it!  This will get you in the mood for the holidays!

MALICE IN MINIATURE (Jeanne Dams)

Yes, I know, I can't seem to stop reading the adventures of the delightful Dorothy Martin.  She and Chief Constable Alan Nesbitt are now newlyweds and living in Dorthy's almost- restored cottage in Sherebury.  Ada Finch interrupts their tea time with the news that her often inebriated son, Bob, has been arrested for stealing a miniature tea set from Brocklesby Hall, where he is employed as a gardener.  The charges are dropped, but Dorothy becomes  intrigued by the monstrous Brocklesby Hall and the Museum of Miniatures housed there.  Sir Mordred Brocklesby, the museum's owner, is a strange little man who is obsessed with miniatures and surrounded by even stranger characters, so when his formidable housekeeper is found poisoned there are a plethora of suspects to be ruled out.  Since Alan is away, Dorothy investigates (with his blessing) and manages to uncover another murder in the process. This cozy includes some very interesting twists and turns, a few red herrings, and an adorable late-in-life marriage that warms the heart.  I can't waitr for dorothy's next adventure.

THE TALE OF HALCYON CRANE (Wendy Webb)

Back in the day, when my hair was still brown and I could climb stairs without a handrail, I couldn't get enough of the likes of H.P. Lovecraft and Bram Stoker.  Frank Langella (remember him in "Dracula"?) was sexy and "Night of the Living Dead" and "Dark Shadows" were a required viewing for anyone who appreciated campy, quality horror.  Since then my tastes have run the gamut of classic literature, suspense, medical thrillers, chick-lit, women's fiction, and cozies, but I 've been interested in very few ghost stories, until now.

Today's young adults thrill to sexy vampires and shape changers, so this story might not interest them.  The Tale of Halcyon Crane is a good, old-fashioned ghost story with just the right combination of terror and practicality, enough to make it almost believable.  Webb unfolds her story with precise timing and just the right amount of suspense. The reader leaps to one conclusion, then to another, only to be lulled back to reality before being confronted again with the possibility that maybe they really are out there, watching and waiting.

Thirty-something Hallie James was raised by her father Thomas in Bellingham, WA after the tragic death of her mother in a house fire 30 years before.  As her father is dying of Alzheimer's she receives an envelope in the mail from Will Archer, an attorney on Great Manitou Island, Minnesota.  Inside the envelope are a letter from Archer informing her of the death of Madlyn Crane along with a letter to Hallie from Madlyn Crane, written just before her recent sudden death from a heat attack.  In the letter Madlyn tells Hallie that she is her mother and that she has believed for 30 years that her daughter and husband died in a tragic boating accident.  A chance picture of Hallie and her father in a newspaper article led Madlyn back to her daughter.  When Hallie arrives on Great Manitou after the death of her father, she meets with suspicion and apparent dislike on the part of many of the island's inhabitants.  She soon discovers why: her father was the main suspect in the death of Hallie's childhood friend, Julie, disappearing along with Hallie before he could be arrested for the crime.  Hallie decides to stay on the island for a few days to live in the house she inherited from her mother, the house that she lived in as a child, but of which she has no memory.  She soon starts hearing voices and experiencing disappearing jewelry, touches from unknown hands, and TV and lights turned inexplicably on and off.  She also discovers that she has inherited a very old housekeeper, Iris, who smells vaguely of dirt and rose petals and claims to have know her family for almost 100 years!

I won't tell you any more about the plot, but suffice it to say, I couldn't put this book down until I finished it.  It's perfect reading for a rainy November day.  It might be even better during a blizzard.  If you are looking for gore and guts, skip it, but if you like a gripping psychological thriller complete with graveyards, mediums, and ghosts, try this one.

THIRD WORLD AMERICA (Arianna Huffington)

In a third world country, the government works for the benefit of special interests and the rich rather than for the good of the majority.  Huffington does a brilliant job of analyzing the long downward spiral of the middle class lifestyle, a spiral precipitated not by reckless spending and irresponsibility of average Americans, but by years of legislation  riddled with loopholes that favor the monied top tier of our economic hierarchy.  Did you know that Washington lobbyists outnumber legislators by almost 26 to one?  Did you know that on average $6.5 million in contributions goes to each of our legislators from these lobbyists?  Did you know that many of the bills designed to help middle class citizens actually hurt them?  Did you know that many of the top government financial regulators used to work on Wall Street and still have strong connections there, that the teachers union has more clout in Washington than several of our largest compnaies combined, and that the top 1% of our citizens own 35% of the wealth?  The middle class is disappearing, but there is hope. 

Huffington's book is scary and depressing.  With each of the first 4 chapters I found myself feeling that our country was, indeed, heading toward destruction, that our days as the place where anyone can achieve success with hard work and a just little luck are truly behind us.  In the final chapter, however, Huffington introduces a glimmer of hope, with anectdotes about Americans who have used their bad luck to become better people, who refuse to accept that unemployment or even losing their home is the end of their dreams.  She talks about philanthropy and America's spirit of giving.  She and her colleagues take action themselves, transferring their money from the "big banks" and depositing it instead in local banks and credit unions, where it benefits communities instead of big business.  When I finshed reading, I was disgusted with politicians of both parties, but infused with new hope for our country and our economy.  This book is about politics, but it is most definitely NOT a political book.  Read it!

HOLY TERROR IN THE HEBRIDES (Jeanne Dams)

When Dorothy Martin agrees to accompany her friends on vacation to the Hebrides while her policeman beau Alan Nesbitt attends a conference in Brussels, she never imagines that she will end up stranded and incommunicado with strangers on an island immobilized by a massive storm.  She heads to the island alone when her firends are delayed due to a health scare, and finds herself staying at an inn with a group of disgruntled religious tourists after she realizes that she forgot to bring the key to her rental cottage.  After one of the religious group dies myteriously, Dorothy suspects foul play.  Is one of the less than travelers a murderer?  Are Dorothy and her fellow travelers, stranded with a murderer who might strike again?

Holy Terror in the Hebrides is a fun cozy and Dorothy, despite her age-related aches and pains, is in fine form as she dodges danger and discovers clues.  Look for a couple of unexpected surprises at the end!

BUSY BODY: AN AGATHA RAISIN MYSTERY (M.C. Beaton)

Unpopular Health and Safety Inspector John Sunday is not mourned by many when he is stabbed to death outside of a Cotswolds ladies society meeting.  Suspects abound, and Agatha Raisin is hired by millionaire incomer and prime suspect Miriam Courtny to clear her name.  When Miriam is also murdered, complications abound.  Agatha, true to form, enjoys some short-lived romantic fantasies about Miriam's handsome son, but soon finds herself grappling with the police and the uncooperative citizens of Oddley Cruesis, where Sunday had put the kibosh on many beloved Chritmas traditions.  If you are a fan of Agatha's friend Charles Fraith, you will like this one.  I miss him when he doesn't show up to mooch off of Agatha!

THE GODWULF MANUSCRIPT (Robert B. Parker)

This novel, written in 1973 and the first of the popular Spenser series, was like a visit back to an era where people had to interact face-to-face and information was something you really had to dig for instead of paying an Internet service or calling a cell phone.  Spenser, as most everyone knows, is a charming Boston-based private eye with an eye for the ladies and a brash, unapologetic style.  He is also a great cook and a satisfying lover with a very 70's outlook on sex and romance.  One of the things I found most enjoyable in this novel were the descriptions, seeing the world through Spenser's eyes.  The reader is treated to Spenser's uncensored opinions on clothing, weather, neighborhoods, people, driving conditions, and food, as well as anything else that comes his way.  As for the crime-solving aspect of this mystery, Spenser works hard to investigate every clue and follow every lead, taking on dangerous opponents, beaing beaten and shot, and recuing damsels in distress.  The heroes of most of today's slick high-tech thrillers can't compare with Spenser's nitty-gritty hands-on style of crime-solving.  Spenser is a real PI, the kind we will always love to read about.

HEART OF THE MATTER (Emily Giffin)

The most interesting thing about Giffin's latest is the characters.  The premise is not new:  seemingly happliy married man meets vulnerable yet capable woman and finds himself falling in love.  In this case the married man is plastic surgeon Nick Russo.  The story is told alternately between Nick's wife, Tessa, who questions her decision to leave her professorship to become a full-time mom, and Valerie, an attorney and single mother whose son, Charlie, is burned in an accident.  I am not sure why Nick would allow himself to cross the line between friendship and love when there are no obvious problems in his marriage.  I don't think that Tessa questioning her abilities as a mother would be enough to drive her husband into the arms of another women.  Nonetheless, I enjoyed the development of the relationship between Nick and Valerie and Nick and Charlie, Valerie's son.  The alternating points of view are done well.  This may not be Giffin's best, but I liked it.

PROMISES TO KEEP (Jane Green)

I seem to be on a sad track lately as far as my reading is concerned.  That being said, everyone knows someone who struggles with cancer, MS, heart disease, lupus, or another life-threatening condition.  Here we are introduced to Callie Perry, a talented photographer, loving wife, mother, sister, daughter, and four-year breast cancer survivor.  Apparently 5% of the victims of a certain type of breast cancer eventually develop a secondary cancer that is virtually untreatable.  When Callie starts experiencing excruciating headaches, weight loss, and blackouts, her sister, Steffi, and long estraged parents, Warren and Honor, come together to support Callie and her husband, Reece, while they await a diagnosis.  This is a very emotional story and Callie is a little too perfect to exist on this earth, but overall, I enjoyed it and I think you will, too.

PERFECT READER (Maggie Pouncey)

When former Darwin College President and renowned scholar Lewis Dempsey dies, he leaves behind a twenty-something daughter, Flora, a collection of personal poetry, a house, and Cynthia, his lover and muse.  Flora leaves her job as a magazine editor in the city and returns to Darwin, scene of her childhood triumphs and traumas, to settle her father's affairs.  As his literary executor, it is Flora's task to manage the fate of his prose and poetry.  One problem is that she has never actually read her father's work, not his revered publication, "Reader as Understander," or the poems that he had entrusted to her care.  Cynthia, an art historian who shared Lewis' bed and intellectual passions, wants to buld a relationship with the reluctant Flora that includes a common goal of publishing Lewis' poetry.  Flora is overwhelmed with her return to Darwin and all of the complicated relationships, new and old, associated with the college town.  Her close childhood friend, Georgia, whose long-ago fall from a fire escape was blamed on Flora (who became somewhat of a pariah as a result), is now living in a Mongolian yurt. Georgia's parents, however, remain in Darwin and embrace Flora as a prodigal daughter.  Esther, the wild child turned born-again Christian, has a young daughter and is firmly grounded in the town.  Paul, Lewis' lawyer, becomes Flora's lover and confidante, but Flora has doubts that she has evolved enough to sustain a serious relationship for long.

Pouncey's first novel is a bit slow-paced, but offers a very insider's look at the politics and inbreeding of a college town and its cult of intellect.  Flora is not a heroine; she is a confused young woman coming to terms with who she is and where she stands on the people and issues closest to her heart.  The book has many things to offer to the patient reader and is well worth the time to read it.  At the end, although some issues were resolved and there were many aspects of Flora's life that remain a work in progress.  I guess we will never know how they turned out, but isn't that what real life is all about?

NEXT OF KIN (Joanna Trollope)

Death and all of its accoutrements are the stars of this novel, which reminded me of a rainy day with occasional breaks of sunshine.  Not everyone dislikes gray, damp days, though, as long as they don't go on forever.  The funeral of Caro Meredith, American wife of Robin and mother of Judy, sets the tone for the mood of "Next of Kin."  Caro was an American, married to dairy farmer Robin for more than a quarter of a century when a brain tumor claimed her life.  Atypically, this event doesn't inspire a series of flashbacks leading to the inevitable end of Caro's life, but rather propels the characters, the next of kin of the title, into a future without a woman who left an indelible mark on each of their lives.  Robin seems both bewildered and accepting, the stoic, hard working man of the earth whose intimate relationship with his inscrutable wife had ended years before.  Adopted daughter Judy is angry at her father, blaming him for Caro's apparent unhappiness and her own lack of direction.  Robin's brother Joe, supposedly happily married to Lindsay, seems bereft at the loss of Caroline. 

Judy brings her rommate, Zoe, a spiky, maroon-haired waif, along to Tideswell Farm for the weekend.  This quirky young woman falls in love with farm life and becomes an unexpected catalyst for change and self-examination for the Meredith family.  As in her other novels, Trollope is a master at developing real, flawed characters.  Here she also does an admirable job of potraying the gritty hardships of farm life in the English midlands.  Trollope specializes in immersion.  Coming out of this book I felt like I had lived through it rather than just reading it.  Depressing?  Yes, but there is light at the end of the tunnel.

THE MOON SPINNERS ( Sally Goldenbaum)

This third in the Seaside Knitters series continues the adventures of sixty-something Nell, Ben, and Nell's niece Izzy Cahmbers, owner of the Seaside Knitting Studio.  Two things stand out in this cozy mystery:  the friendships and the food! This time the murder victim is Sylvia Santos, the beautiful, controversial wife of millionaire Angelo Santos.  When her red Ferrari careens off a cliff, the initial assumption is that she was the victim of an unfortunate accident.  Then it is discovered that the brake line hs been cut.  Complicating the investigation are Sylvia's unpopular decision to cut off beach access to the community, circumstantial evidence against Angelo's unstable sister Julianne, and an unexpected pregnancy.  As usual, Izzy, octogenarian Birdie, Nell, and the others knit their way to a surprising solution.  There is actually not too much knitting in this installment, but there is enough mention of yarn and knitting patterns to satisfy yarn enthusiasts.  I have to admit that I was surprised when I found out who the perpetrator of the crimes was.  Goldenbaum did a decent job on this one!

CARDINGTON CRESCENT (Anne Perry)

I didn't realize how much I missed Anne Perry's astounding ability to immerse her readers in the everyday life of Victorian England.  From the squalor of London's slums to the unabashed hypocrisy of the privileged classes, Perry makes us feel as if we are there.  When Charlotte's brother-in-law, George, is found poisoned at his cousin's family home, Bow Street detective Thomas Pitt, her husband, is called in to investigate.  With today's plethora of television shows and novels about forensics and police procedures it is fascinating to see how far we have come from Victorian times!  The family stands in the way of Thomas's investigation, insisting (with no evidence whatsoever) that widow Emily must be guilty, primarily because of her lower social standing!  A simultaneous investigation involving the murder and dismemberment of a young woman is rather too neatly tied into this upper-class murder, but the investigations of both are intriguing from start to finish, as are the various related sub-plots that round out the novel, enriching the Victorian experience.  Thomas and Charlotte are an intelligent, practical, and very loving couple. They will charm and entertain you through every page.  Read this series, or re-read it!

TROUBLE IN THE TOWN HALL (Jeanne Dams)

This is the second in Dams' charming Dorothy Martin series.   American ex-pat Dorothy, now a widow of one year, has grown increasing closer to Chief Constable Alan Nesbitt while establishing a new life in the shadow of England's fictional Sherebury Cathedral.  While out walking (she still has trouble adapting to England's driving habits) one day, Dorothy happens to notice movement in the town's deserted old town hall, prompting her to enter and to meet charwoman Ada Finch, leading (of course) to the discovery of a dead body in a closet.  Since the ancient town hall is the subject of a tug of war between developers and preservationists, suspects and possible motives abound.  Naturally, Dorothy is drawn into investigating the death.

Dams (who does NOT live in the UK!) has a way of interweaving so many details of small-town English life into her novels that you would swear you were actually in Sherebury.  Readers are almost able to feel the rain relentlessly dripping down their necks or pounding on the roof or to taste the chocolate biscuits and piping hot tea.  Dams creates an almost flawless sense of place in her mysteries.  As for characters, Dorothy is level-headed, age appropriate in her behavior and dress, and emotionally realistic while Alan is gentlemanly and  intelligent.  There are few "Perils of Pauline" type adventures here and the realism adds immeasurably to the appeal of this series. I can't wait to order some more!

FLY AWAY HOME (Jennifer Weiner)

When I started reading the description of this novel, my first thought was, "Older woman deals with marital problems by moving to vacation home in CT, eventually joined by adult daughters with problems of their own?....The Three Weissmanns of Westport!"  I imagine that Jennifer Weiner must have been dismayed when Catherine Schine's novel was first publicized, because the similarities in plot seem striking.  Closer reading reveals a completely different feel to Weiner's novel, though.  Her heroine, Sylvie Serfer Woodruff, is strong and resilient, living firmly in the real world and facing her husband's infidelity by withdrawing to her family's country ocean-side vacation retreat to heal and to think about her choices for the future.  Daughters Lizzie, a recovering drug addict, and Diana, a high achieving, staunchly correct physician who has herself been unfaithful to her boring husband, also face life-changing dilemmas that result in their joining their mother in Connecticut to think through their options, or perhaps to hide. 

Weiner has an interesting way of taking current events like the ubiquitous trend toward cheating married politicians and turning them into a thoughful, entertaining novel.  Her treatment of Sylvie's approach to dealing with her husband's infidelity is right on the mark.  I think I might behave the same way, assuming that I am an itelligent, thoughtful woman, in a similar situation.  Lizzie's happy ending and Diana's marriage are a little too trite and predictable, but perhaps Weiner preferred to produce an uplifting, life-affirming novel rather than a contender for an eventual Oprah pick.  If you are a fan of Jennifer Weiner, or even if you are not, this novel is well worth taking a look at!

OUT OF THE BLUE (Isabel Wolff)

Faith and Peter Smith have been comfortably married for 15 years, though lately things have been a little less than blissful due to Peter's stressful job situation.  Faith's glamorous friend Lily suggests that Peter is showing classic signs of infidelity when he forgets their anniversary and sends her flowers to apologize.  As circumstantial evidence piles up, Lily, a glossy magazine editor with and annoying dog named Jennifer Aniston, offers to pay for a private detective to tail Peter as part of an article on infidelity.  When Peter finally confesses to a fling with his head hunter, Andie, Faith is devastated, throws him out, and reluctantly embarks on a new life as a soon-to-be divorced woman.

Wolff's style is light and appealing.  Her characters can, intentionally, I think, border on stereotypical, but the sympathetic ones are likeable and the reader will find herself rooting for a happy ending.

MRS. MALORY WONDERS WHY (Hazel Holt)

Like Jeanne Dams with her Dorothy Martin series, Holt manages to create a strong sense of place in her Sheila Malory series.  Mrs. Malory is a widow who lives in the cozy village of Taviscombe with her grown son, Michael.  She discovers Miss Graham dead one afternoon after her elderly friend has asked her to stop by so she can share some important and disturbing news.  What appears to be a heart attack turns out to be murder, and suspects abound.  Was porr Miss Graham poisoned by Dr. Cowley, the greedy physician with questionable ethics who wants to turn her building into a nursing home?  Could it have been her wimpy and ineffectual nephew Ronnie, who stands to inherit, or his exasperated wife, Carol?  What about "Mrs." Wheatley, the woman of questionable reputation rumored to be friendly with Dr. Cowley?  Mrs. Malory, in the great tradition of Miss Marple, cannot resist investigating the crime.  There are some surprises at the end.  If you enjoy a good English cozy, you will love Mrs. Malory.

THE WEED THAT STRINGS THE HANGMAN'S BAG (Alan Bradley)

Flavia de Luce is back!  When famous puppeteer Rupert Porson and his assistant Nialla arrive in Bishop's Lacey, murder soon follows, and Flavia is on the case.  Flavia possesses a beguilingly childish curiosity combined with the deductive powers of Hercule Poirot and the scientific savvy of Alfred Noble.  In this, Bradley's second mystery featuring the 11-year-old detective, the reader is treated to 2 intertwined cases: the supposedly accidental hanging of young Robin 5 years before and the electrocution of Rupert during a perfromance of "Jack and the Beanstalk."  Flavia, with the aid of her bicycle, Gladys, manages to solve both mysteries, much to the chagrin of Inspector Hewitt.  I'm not sure how Alan Bradley manages to channel an 11-year-old girl in 1950 so well, but he does.  I look forward eagerly to the next installment in Flavia's life as an amateur detective!

THE YELLOW HOUSE (Patricia Falvey)

Eileen O'Neill is a 10-year-old girl in early 20th century Ulster when her younger sister Lizzie falls gravely ill and is taken to the fever hospital and subsequently reported dead.  This event marks the beginning of Eileen's bad luck.  Her mother, after giving birth to brother Paddy soon after the loss of Lizzie, takes oldest son Frank and leaves the family's home (the Yellow House of the title) to return to her father's house.  Eventually Mrs. O'Neill's guilt and sorrow drive her into a deep depression and she is institutionalized.  Eileen struggles to help her Da raise Paddy in the midst of Northern Ireland's violent struggle over Home Rule. Eventually losing their Da to IRA violence, she and Paddy move in with Eileen's godparents and she goes to work in the local mill, owned by the wealthy Sheridan family. Eileen's dream, to reunite her family in the yellow house, slips further and further away as her marriage to James Conlon founders and the increasing violence of the IRA threatens to destroy all that she holds dear.

In addition to Falvey's wonderful historical research, she has created vivid characters with depth and richness that reflect the tumultuous political climate beautifully.  The reader will leave feeling that they have been both educated and captivated.

BEHAVING BADLY (Isabel Wolff)

Anyone who thinks that chick-lit is primarily mindless fluff needs to have another think!  Behaving Badly is a wonderful story with several layers of plot that keep the reader engaged throughout the novel.  Miranda Sweet is a veterinarian turned animal behaviorist who is recovering from a recent traumatic (not in the usual way) break-up with her actor fiancé.  During a session with a client she notices a picture of the woman's familiar-looking husband, an up and coming member of Parliament.  Eventually she realizes that MP James Mulholland is Jimmy Smith, with whom she shares a radical and possibly criminal past.  Weighed down by guilt for 16 years, she seeks out the victim of her youthful mistake intending to confess and take the consequences, but "Jimmy" has other ideas that might destroy her life and career.  Wolff manages to combine an endearing heroine, political intrigue, and romantic suspense with thoroughly fascinating glimpses into various animal behaviors. This novel is a must read for anyone who is looking for something fun that will keep them interested from start to finish.

AS HUSBANDS GO (Susan Isaacs)

The great Susan Isaacs has done it again, adding an irresistible touch of mystery to her usual Jewish woman-with-a-problem story.  Happily married and the mother of triplets, Susie Gerston is in a state of shock when her husband and best friend, successful Manhattan plastic surgeon Jonah Gerston, is found murdered in the seedy apartment of "escort" Dorinda Dillon, who is eventually tracked down in Vegas and arrested for the crime.  The police are happy with their open and shut case, but Susie won't be satisfied until she is convinced that the real killer is being brought to justice.  She enlists the aid of her look-alike grandmother, Ethel O'Shea, and her best friend Andrea, and husband "Fat Boy", to help her investigate.  Susie thought that Jonah was happy with their life and their three rambunctious boys and cannot believe that he sought out the services of a prostitute.  Adding to her stress are Jonah's parents, who are anxious to see Dorinda convicted, and brother-in-law Theo, who is more concerned with a possible inheritance from Jonah than seeing justice served.  As Susie discovers signs of problems in Jonah's medical practice and reviews evidence gathered by the private investigator that she had hired initially to investigate Jonah's disappearance, she becomes convinced that there is much more to Jonah's murder than meets the eye.  How can she convince the authorities to reopen the case?

The one thing that bothered me about this novel (and it's only a little detail) is the transition just before the ending, whne we see that the killer has been arrested and convicted.  I'm not quite sure how that happened so quickly but, like Susie, I was glad to have all of the pieces of the puzzle finally put together.  One thing that makes this novel stand out from a typical whodunnit is the emotional development of the characters.  I recommend Isaacs' latest wholeheartedly!  Check it out!

THE BODY IN THE TRANSEPT (Jeanne Dams)

American widow Dorothy Martin is possessed of the best traits of Jessica Fletcher with a touch of Hyacinth Bucket.  She is intelligent and inquisitive, sensitive and self-sufficient, but doesn't feel completely decked out without a beautiful hat.  Having recently lost her beloved husband, Frank, Dorothy has decided to continue with their plans of settling in Sherebury, an English academic town, in the shadow of a great cathedral.  After the Christmas Eve service Dorothy trips over the dead body of a brilliant but universally disliked canon of the church in the transept, and so begins her career as an amateur sleuth.  Dorothy is wonderful: low key, logical, and refined.  Dams manages to present Dorothy as a fully developed character despite the fact that this is the first in the Dorothy Martin series.  Will I read more?  Without a doubt (and I already have, come to think of it!).  The mystery is great and the characters are even better.  The setting is thoroughly Englad - you can almost feel the damp and cold fog coming in under your door as you read.  This is a great series for any time of year and any time you want to just escape from everyday life and be thoroughly entertained.

A VINTAGE AFFAIR (Isabel Wolff)

What can I say but that I loved this book!  It is full of layers and texture and color, all woven together in Phoebe Swift's struggle to forgive herself for the death of her best friend, Emma.  Phoebe has broken her engagement and left her prestigious position at Sotheby's, partly to fulfill her dream of owning a vintage clothing shop, but also to attempt to heal emotionally and begin life anew.  During the course of setting up her shop she encounters new friends and possibilities for new romances.  She also meets Therése Bell, a dying woman with a closet full of beautiful vintage outfits plus one handmade blue woolen coat with a story all its own that becomes an important part of Phoebe's story as well.

Wolff succeeds on several levels with this novel.  The detailed descriptions of the clothing in Phoebe's shop will delight vintage fashion afficionados as well as anyone who loves fabrics, colors, and textures.  There is just enough romance to satisfy, and enough humor to lift a readers' spirits.  The characters are lovable and quirky, especially Phoebe's mother and Dan.  There is a universal psychological aspect not found that often in "chick lit" and the parent-child dynamics are true-to-life. The heart of the book, however, lies with Therése Bell and her unexpected friendship with Phoebe, a friendship that allows Phoebe to come to terms with her own emotions and to move on with her life.  My verdict?  Two thumbs up for this one!

31 BOND STREET (Ellen Horan)

Horan manages to combine all of the elements of a good mystery with excellent historical detail.  In January,1857 Dr. Harvey Burdell is found dead in his room, his throat slashed from side to side and his torso riddled with stab wounds.  His housekeeper / fiancé, Emma Cunningham, is the prime suspect and, despite lack of any solid evidence, she is arrested for the crime.  Attorney Henry Clinton, at the cost of his successful law practice, agrees to take the case and defend Emma, whom he believes to be innocent of the crime.

What sets Horan's novel apart from your typical mystery is the texture.  She skillfully weaves together several storylines, all related to the murder, in such a way that the reader, although privy to knowledge and motives that Clinton and Cunningham are not, is still in the dark about how the crime was committed until the very end.  The historical details are wonderful.  The legal system in pre-Civil War New York is frightening, but Henry Clinton, based on a real person, rivals the best fictional attorneys with his dedication and willingness to possibly ruin his career in his quest for justice.  Everything in this novel is fascinating because, despite the passing of 150 years, the role of the media, human nature, and the greed that drives humans to abuse and kill are all the same now as they were back then.  I would recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys a good historical or an intriguing mystery, or both!

HEARTS ON A STRING (Kris Radish)

Hearts on a String is  novel of sisterhood.  Five disparate, troubled women meet by chance in a Tampa airport restroom  and end up sharing a luxury hotel room when all flights are cancelled due to a giant storm.  As far as female bonding goes, I would recommend some of the others books that I have read, like Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons (Lorna Landvik),  before this particular novel.  It was not bad by any means, but something was off for me.  That doesn't mean that you as a reader would feel the same.  Holly (a shy hairdresser with psychic tendencies), Nan (a troubled business woman with a foundering marriage), Cathy (a sexy exceutive), Patti (a lounge singer), and Margo (a nurturing mother) are all unique and interesting characters, but they are a little too glib and their situation seems a little forced, not quite comfortable or natural.  I could be that Radish manages expertly to communicate the stress and anxiety of the women's situation through her writing, but I think I would rather watch the story unfold from the sidelines rather than feeling the angst of the characters so closely.  There are some interesting surprises as the secrets and problems of the women are revealed and the book did hold my interest.  I just had trouble feeling love for this book.

PATTERNS IN THE SAND (Sally Goldenbaum)

Knitting fiction is very popular nowadays and reading a knitting mystery is a fun way to spend a relaxing summer evening.  Patterns in the Sand is set in an art colony in Sea Harbor, MA.  The mystery action begins when fiber artist Willow Adams is found in the display window of Izzy Chambers' knitting shop, not dead, but asleep! When popular artist Aiden Peabody is poisoned Willow is a suspect, especially when it is discovered that she is the sole beneficiary of his will.  When yet another suspicious death occurs Izzy and her knitting group are determined to discover what's going on.  Goldenbaum does an excellent job of interspersing clues and suspects throughout the story without giving away the plot and several surprises in the latter part of the book make this a mystery worth reading.  This is the second in a series.

ROSES (Leila Meacham)

Roses is an old-fashioned family saga covering more than a century in the lives of the Toliver, Wawruck, and DuMont familes of Howbutker, Texas.  The younger sons of these three wealthy and prominent eastern families make their way west to seek their fortunes during the 1800's, eventually deciding to settle on an area of land that came to be know as Howbutker, a variation of "how about here?"  All decide to continue in the tradition of their families back home, establishing successful businesses in Howbutker:  the Tolivers in cotton, the Wawrucks in lumber, and the DuMonts in retail.  By the early 20th century the familes are firmly established as leaders of commerce and society in Texas.  The focus of this saga is on Mary Toliver, the love of her life, Percy Wawruck, and sweet, patient Ollie DuMont, who also loves Mary.  As in every family saga worth its salt, bad choices are made, love goes awry, tragedies strike, and history repeats itself over and over again.

Although I enjoyed Roses, I did not find it to be a satisfying read.  How can a love be true when it is so carelessly thrown aside for a greater love, the land?  I guess in some respects you could compare Meacham's saga to Edna Ferber's Giant or Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind, but Mary is much more capable and independent than Scarlett and should have know better, been able to foresee the consequences of her actions.  They do share the ability to use men to further their own ambitions and I guess this trait is what turned me off to the novel as a whole.  I would say go ahead and read it if you like family sagas.  This one has all of the elements necessary to a good saga.  I just couldn't get over the poor decisions, but without them I guess there would not have been a story!

SWEETNESS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PIE (Alan Bradley)

Everyone has favorites that they return to over and over again: the restaurant with the best burgers ever, that song that reminds them of the senior prom, or the author that keeps getting better and better with each new novel.  Every once in a while something new and different comes along, something that unexpectedly appeals to your sense of whimsey or makes you look at life a bit differently, and you find yourself falling in love yet again! 

Chances are that an 11-year-old girl detective with a rich fantasy life and a brain for chemistry sounds like a great reading choice for a middle-schooler, but not for a fully developed adult bibliophile.  Wrong!  Alan Bradley's Flavia de Luce is wonderful!  In her dealings with her two obnoxious older sisters, boy-obsessed Ophelia and bookish Daphne, she is self-possessed and wildly imaginitive.  For example, in her fully equipped chemistry lab, once the domain of great uncle Tar, she infuses Ophelia's favorite lipstick with poison ivy then waits patiently for symptoms to manifest themselves.  How many of us with sisters wish we had the skill and gumption to have done something like this?

When Flavia discovers a nearly-dead man in the family cucumber patch, the Latin word "vale" whispered in his dying breath, she embarks on her first murder investigation.  Her widowed father, a philatelist and acquaintence of the victim, is the prime suspect, and Flavia uses every resource at her disposal to solve the crime, displaying powers of deduction, scientific knowledge, and attention to detail rivaling those of the great Sherlock Holmes.  There are no "boring" interludes in this wonderful mystery;  it will hold your interest from beginning to end.  I am looking forward to reading the next installment very soon!

KNIT, PURL, DIE (Anne Canadeo)

The Black Sheep knitters are at it again!  Maggie Messina, owner of the Black Sheep knitting shop, has invited old friend Gloria Sterling, a wealthy, fifty-something beauty recently married to a much younger man, to join the knitting group that includes graphic artist Lucy, realtor Suzanne, psychologist Dana, and student Phoebe.  The women are delighted to see Gloria's newfound marital bliss with Jamie Barnett, a struggling artist who is completely besotted with his bride.  The group is nearly as devastated as Jamie when Gloria drowns  in her swimming pool one night while Jamie is in Bosoton arranging a gallery showing of his artwork.  The police believe that Gloria's death was an accident, the sad result of too many painkillers and too much wine.  The Black Sheep knitters are not convinced.  To whom did the second wine glass found by Suzanne belong?  Why did Gloria sound so upbeat on the phone just before her death if she was despondent?  Why was her favorite deck chair on the other side of the pool when she died?  What about her real estate holdings?  Read this charming cozy and find out!

NEEDLES AND PEARLS (Gil McNeil)

Widow Jo MacKenzie has settled into her new life in the seaside English village of Broadgate and her boys, Jack and Archie, are thriving in the community as Jo's yarn shop, McKnits, slowly grows.  A year has now passed since Jo's husband, Nick, announced that he was leaving her for another woman and then promptly died in an auto accident.  Jo's grandmother, Mary, and best friend, Ellen, have fallen in love and are planning their weddings, both of which will prominently feature Jo and her sons.  In the midst of trying to expand her business online with the help of handsome carpenter Martin and dealing with all of the wedding preparations and other dramas in her life, Jo makes a discovery that will change her life forever.

Needles and Pearls continues where The Beach Street Knitting Society and Yarn Club leaves off.  This installment (and I hope there will be more!) is just as charming.  McNeil has a way of making the reader feel like they actually  know her characters and that comfortable feeling permeates the novel.  I hated to see ithe last page!

PUSHING UP DAISIES (Rosemary Harris)

Small town politics, a wise-cracking cafe owner, gardening, murder, a beautiful bff, and a couple of good-looking potential love interests ... What more could you ask for in a good cozy?  Paula Holliday has left her high pressure media job in New York to pursue a new, more relaxing (or so she thinks) career as a master gardener in fictional Springfield, CT.  One of her first accomplishments when she is hired to restore the historic gardens at Halcyon is to dig up a box containing a mummified  baby.  Her investigation into the identity of the baby and its mother leads her into an increasingly complicated web of intrigue and the discovery of several local scandals from the past.  Rosemary Harris does an excellent job of weaving all of the plot lines seamlessly into a delightful novel, the first in her "Dirty Business" series.

KNITTING UNDER THE INFLUENCE (Claire LaZebnik)

I took this novel on a recent trip to Atlanta for my nephew's wedding (Congratulations, Matthew & Brittney!) and managed to finish it soon after our return home.  I was disappointed, but that is not a reflection on LaZebnik's talent.  The book had a little too much "earthy" language for my taste, but a younger reader would probably not even notice because that's the way most people converse nowadays.  I also had a strange feeling that I had read this novel before, but I really don't think I have.

Kathleen, Lucy, and Sari are three longtime friends of around age 27.  Lucy is a respected researcher with an overbearingly egotistical boyfriend, Sari is a therapist who works with autistic children, and Kathleen is a triplet who has spent her adult life working for and catering to her 2 sisters, who are identical and have enjoyed a career much like that of the Olsen twins.  The three meet and bond every Sunday over knitting.  Kathleen, after an unfortunate comment to the press about her famous sisters, quits her job and ends up living in an apartment below a much older man, a friend of the family, who arranges a job for her and becomes her unwilling confidante as she embarks on a romance with the son of her wealthy employer.  Sari, single and lonely, finds herself fighting an attraction for an old classmate, the father of one of her clients, whom she believes tormented her autistic brother during high school.  Lucy finds herself increasingly irritated with James, her intolerant and critical lover.  Through it all, they knit! 

LaZebnik uses the process of knitting a project as the chapter headings in this book, which is a clever way to enhance the knitting theme.  This is definitely a romance, and definitely chick-lit.  I would not recommend it for an older, more conservative knitter, but the under-thirty crowd would definitely enjoy it.

THE THREE WEISSMANNS OF WESTPORT (Catherine Schine)

This novel has been compared to Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, and rightly so.  The 3 Weissmanns are dumped wife Betty and her daughters, practical librarian Anne, who is divorced and the mother of 2 grown sons, and flighty Miranda, whose successful literary agency has been destroyed by several James Frey-like memoirists.  Betty's husband, Joseph, has recently become enamored of co-worker Felicity and decides that the time is right to end his 48-year marriage and embark on new adventures in love.  Joseph, with Felicity's encouragement, freezes 70-year-old Betty out financially until the details of their divorce are settled, and Betty is forced to leave their New York city apartment and move to a small cottage in Westport, CT, available due to the beneficence of eccentric cousin Lou, to whom almost everyone is "like family".  Miranda, on the verge of bankruptcy and with her professional reputation in ruins, decides to accompany her mother to Westport.  Anne sublets her apartment and moves to Westport with them, commuting daily to her library job in the city.

Betty is in denial about her divorce and decides to adapt the persona of a grieving widow.  Rather than being angry at Joseph's legal maneuverings, she believes that she will return to her home and that things will eventually straighten out financially.  Miranda, whose pattern of short-lived love affairs and poor choices continues, meets a younger man with an adorable son and falls in love with them both while pretending that her business dealings haven't drained her of all her resources.  Both Betty and Miranda spend Anne's money with total abandon while she struggles to maintain their home and keep their heads above water.

This entertaining novel, like Jane Austen's, has a bit of everything: tragedy, thwarted love, revenge, and the universal struggle to survive against great odds.  Schine shows us a family of women who are survivors and whose story is well-worth reading.

WHILE MY PRETTY ONE KNITS (Anne Canadeo)

Initially, I had a little bit of trouble remembering who was who as I read this entertaining cozy knitting mystery, but I quickly straightened out the cast of characters in my mind.  Lucy, Suzanne, Maggie, Dana, and Phoebe are a group of woman at different stages of life who share a love of knitting and a close friendship.  They meet on a regular basis to knit and socialize at each other's homes or at the Black Sheep.  Maggie Messina, a widow and the owner of the Black Sheep knitting shop, is the mother-figure of the group.  She is also the prime suspect when Amanda Goran, who runs a rival knitting shop in Plum Harbor, MA, is murdered in her store.  When the murder weapon is found in Maggie's shop among the stock that she purchased from Amanda's estranged husband, Peter, the police close in, ready to close the case and arrest Maggie.  I did figure out who the murderer was early on in the book, but this was probably a function of my keen eye for detection rather than a problem with the plot! :) There are a couple of VERY likely suspects here!  I thoroughly enjoyed Canadeo's first knitting mystery.  This is truly a cozy, complete with small town charm, an unlikable victim, an amateur sleuth who is thrust by necessity into the role, and a perfect setting that evokes warmth and friendship.  I certainly plan to read the next installment in this series!

BRAVA VALENTINE (Adriana Trigiani)

Sometimes it bothers me to return to quickly to the same characters and at other times I can't wait to find out what happens in their lives.  "Brava Valentine" is one of the ones I couldn't wait to read.  Valentine Roncalli is probably one of the most true-to-life literary characters that I have encountered.  She is driven yet vulnerable, uncertain and confident at the same time.  She loves her family deeply, yet doesn't always like them.  In her mid-thrities, she has yet to discover what she really wants out of life.  Her career path is certain: she is a cobbler, a creator of custom wedding shoes, the carrier of the family torch.  Her personal life, however, is in chaos as she is torn between two countries and just beginning to consider her biological clock.  She is the unwilling keeper of secrets and the solver of past mysteries.

Trigiani has a knack for mixing humor with pathos, joy with sorrow.  The Angelini/Roncalli family is SO typical, yet so unique, laced with humor, stress, marital angst, and money worries.  They have evolved and become more human since the first installment in Valentine's story and I like them even more now.  Adriana Trigiani excels at writing about love among family members, friends, lovers, and generations linked and unlinked by decisions of the past.  She also provides detailed glimpses into the world of fine shoe manufacturing that are fascinating enough to make me want to know more about the whole process.  I can recommend this novel on so many levels, so I will.  Read it, but read Very Valentine first, if you haven't yet.

EGGS IN PURGATORY (Laura Childs)

Laura Childs' new Cackleberry Club series lives up nicely to her two others.  The Cackleberry Club is a restaurant devoted primarily to egg dishes, but the business also includes knitting and book nooks, so readers can look forward to future mysteries focusing on book clubs and yarn crafts as well as eggs!  The business is run by a recent widow, Suzanne, along with Toni, who has a sort of "reputation' in town and is in the process of divorcing her husband, and Petra, whose husband suffers from Alzheimers.  Suzanne Deitz's physician husband died recently as a result of pancreatic cancer, and now he may be linked to an illegal kickback scheme that could be related to 2 recent murders that hit way to close to home for Suzanne's comfort. Childs throws in a cult complete with a messainic leader, lots of quirky local characters, and some great down-home cooking that all combine into an entertaining and very promising new series.

THE FINISHING TOUCHES (Hester Browne)

One the day of Charles and Diana's wedding, a baby girl is left on the steps of the Phillamore Academy, an exclusive finishing school in London.  Adopted by Lord and Lady Phillamore, the foundling, named Betsy, lives for the day when she, too, can become a Phillamore girl.  Her world is turned upside down when her adoptive parents advise against her attending the academy because she is not the sort of girl who would fit in there.  Instead they suggest that she hone her mathematical skills at university.  She sadly accepts the fact that she is not seen as good enough for high society.  She excels at school but, unfortunately, her career hits a snag and she becomes a shoe store manager while leading her family to believe that she is a successful management consultant.  When Betsy returns home for Lady Frances Phillimore's memorial service she is dismayed to see that the academy is in disrepair and that the classes being taught are hopelessly outdated.  At Lord Phillimore's request she agrees to hire on as a consultant to find ways to improve the school and, hopefully, at the same time find her birth mother.  With the help of her dilettante best friend, Liv, and Liv's brother, on whom Betsy has an unrequited crush, Betsy plans a series of new trial classes and an Open Day to attract new students, all the while fighting against the horrible headmistress and the gold-digging widow with her sights set on Lord Phillimore as her next husband.

Like Hester Browne's other novels, The Finishing Touches is hilarious, heartwarming, and a significant cut above many of the single-girl novels that are popular today.  Her heroines have both a heart and a brain and quickly endear themselves to the reader.  I can't wait for the next one!

THE LONG WAY HOME (Robin Pilcher)

Claire Barclay is a young girl when her widowed mother, Daphne, meets Leo Harrison, a Scottish plant expert who captures her heart.  Leo and Daphne marry and the new family settles in at Leo's estate in Alloa, Scotland.  Leo's two nasty children make Claire feel like an outsider, and Jonas Fairweather, the son of Leo's tenant farmer/mechanic, becomes her only friend.  As the two mature their relationship becomes closer, but when Claire finally declares her love for Jonas she is summarily rejected and flees Alloa to see the world and get over her heartbreak.  In New York she meets restaurant owner Art Barringer and quickly falls in love.

Years later, Claire's mother dies and Claire and Art discover that Leo has developed the beginnings of dementia.  In an effort to help him, they plan to purchase the estate and convert it into a conference center that will include a home for Leo and access to his beloved greenhouses.  They are dismayed to learn that Jonas, who has been helping Leo to manage his finances, also has plans for the property and they come to question his apparent devotion to Leo.

Robin Pilcher has crafted a fine novel, a combination of romance, financial intrigue, mystery, and complicated family dynamics, with a very satisfying conclusion that could easily have been written by one of today's many popular mystery novelists.  This one is a winner.  I miss Rosamund Pilcher's novels, but I'm glad that her son is continuing in her fine tradition!

GIRL IN A BLUE DRESS (Gaynor Arnold)

....A novel Inspired by the Life and Marriage of Charles Dickens.
Young Dorothea (Dodo) Millar is mesmerized by the wit and humor of the brilliant actor / writer Alfred Gibson, a protege of her father, and she contrives, with the help of a becomingly altered blue dress, to win his admiration and his heart.  During her marriage to "The One and Only", a marriage revolving almost exclusively around her increasingly successful husband's wants and needs, Dodo strives to support her husband's career.  Her own problems and desires are lost in the demands of his rising popularity as eight pregnancies deplete her strength and attractiveness.  Eventually Alfred turns Dodo out of their home, publishing a very public and humiliating (to Dorothea) message suggesting that her inadequacies as a wife and mother made it impossible for him, a loving and caring father, to continue with the marriage.

Girl in a Blue Dress is a heartbreaking novel.  It provides us with a very non-idealized view of Dickens the man and with first-hand insight into how his talent and life experience propelled him into becoming the most celebrated and revered writer of the Victorian era.  Dickens spent part of his youth in the workhouse and began working to support his family at the tender age of eight, and many of his experiences from childhood and beyond found their way into his novels.  His talent was indisputable but, if Arnold's interpretation of his life is accurate, he was a megalomaniac whose ego demanded constant stroking.  He had magic, though, and something akin to the celebrity that surrounds today's top athletes and movie stars.  Even his cruelty and his self-serving use of his wife and children did not in any way diminish the public's or Dorothea's love and admiration.

I found the first half of this 414 page book to be somewhat plodding.  Dorothea's depression and inability to cope with Alfred's increasing lack of interest in her, her lack of spunk (she left her six living children behind and regretted that they never came to see her in ten years, never venturing to look at the separation from their point of view!), and her tireless devotion to the man who had cast her out of his life and never looked back, all combine into a portrait of a rather tiresome woman.  I won't even comment on her nickname, "Dodo"!  What makes this novel interesting is Ms. Arnold's detailed portrayal of Gibson /Dickens and the way in which Dorothea begins to come to life and into her own after her husband's death at the age of 58, 10 years after their separation.  After reading this, I want very much to learn more about the literary phenomenon that was Charles Dickens and about his marriage to Catherine Dickens, the real-life Dodo.

WEDDING SEASON (Katie Fforde)

Katie Fforde's novels are always fresh and different.  They are chick-lit, yes, but Fforde has a witty, comical style and creates characters that the reader can care about.  We know that the ending will be happy becausre it wouldn't be a romance without that! 

The main characters in this novel are Sarah, a wedding planner, Elsa, a dress maker, and Bron, a hairdresser who is also talented at makeup and cake making.  I think that one of the unique features of the story is that all three young women are very talented, hard working, and innovative.  No one falls into a career with the help of a handsome man, no one is working in publishing, and no one lives in a grotty apartment or sleeps around with a bunch of low-lifes before finding true love.  Sarah has been hurt in the past and doesn't believe in love, but Bron and Elsa certainly do.  Sarah's loopy sister, Lily, is sweet and comical, a typical chick-lit character whose wedding is planned for the very day that Sarah is supposed to plan a celebrity wedding that could make her career.  With the help of Hugo, James, and Laurence and the requisite misunderstandings and near disasters, Sarah, Elsa, and Bron form a winning team and everyone lives happily ever after.  If you love English ambience in your reading, how could you resist a book populated by a run-down country estate and people named Hugo, Fenella, AND Rupert!  I was in Anglo-Heaven throughout.  This is a great, relaxing book, perfect for a rainy weekend or anytime you want to escape from everyday worries!

THE BAKER'S APPRENTICE (Judith Ryan Hendricks)

I think the thing that I enjoyed most about this novel was the bread-making.  I myself am great at cookies, but very bad at creating edible food that contains yeast (Hooray for bread machines!), so I enjoyed learning how the kneading of the dough develops the texture of the bread and how slight changes in the comBination of ingredients  can completely change the final product.

This is a sort of coming-of-age story for thirty-somethings.  Wyn is in the process of divorcing and in dire financial straits.  She has been part owner of a bread bakery for about a year as the story begins and is newly in love with Mac McLeod, a friend and comforter who is seeking to publish his first novel.  Mac is rough around the edges and Wyn is worried about the transition from friends to lovers.  Everyone is worried about money and no one seems to have any.  This was a pleasant book, but I am still not sure about the title.  Tyler, a blue-haired waif with a difficult family background, becomes Wyn's apprentice, working the night shift by her side creating delicious bread.  Tyler, the apprentice, is not the focus of the novel though; that is the relationship between Wyn and Mac, who for a good part of the novel is living in the Yukon where his truck broke down on his way to Alaska to think for a few months.  The main characters are all well-developed and three-dimensional, easy-going in their relationships despite a significant amount of angst and indecision in their lives.  Wyn and Mac sort of mirror Tyler's transition from aimless child to focused adult.  I'm sure that a good book critic would pull out the symbolism represented by making the bread and figure out the significance of the title.  If you have read it I would appreciate your comments.

RED HOT MURDER (Joanne Pence)

Angie Amalfi is a little out of the ordinary as amateur sleuths go. She has the requisite handsome cop / boyfriend, San Francisco homicide detective Paavo Smith, an interesting career (cooking related), and an insatiable need to investigate any crime that crosses her path. What sets her apart is her wardrobe (designer all the way) and her romantic nature (she spends quite a bit of time waiting for Paavo in bed!).

In Red Hot Murder Angie and Paavo travel to Arizona, he to meet someone to discuss the mysterious death of an old friend, she to scout it as a possible venue for their upcoming wedding. On arrival they find another missing person and a hilarious herd of ostriches that manage to disrupt most of the events in novel. Pence has created a very endearing and likeable character in Angie and overall I enjoyed the story, but I found the large cast of characters difficult to keep track of. Hal, the original victim, was an eccentric retail giant and ranch owner, divorced from Clarissa and father to Joey, who hopes to inherit the ranch. Maritza, Lupe, and Teresa are three generations of a family whose lives are intertwined with several of the other characters. Dolores is the charming cook/housekeeper at the ranch, devoted to the late Hal, and Doc is the local medicine man, in love with the divorced Lupe, who cannot marry him because of her strict Catholic faith. Junior is Hal's cousin, I think, and Lionel runs the ranch, Ned is the vanished friend that Paavo had hoped to meet, and Laverne is the chef with a secret that causes people to run in the other direction when she offers a new recipe for tasting. See what I mean? Overall though, Pence's novel, one of the most recent in this series is colorful and hilarious. If you pay close attention to names and relationships you will enjoy it from the first page to the last.

THE SIDE OF ANGELS (Christina Bartolomeo)

I admit that reading 3 books by this author in 7 weeks is a little excessive, but I enjoy her style and her themes so much!  In this novel we met Dominica (Nicky) Malone, an Irish-Italian single woman employed by a "2nd rate" PR firm.  Nicky has been unlucky in love, leaving Tony, the love of her life, after 5 years of cohabitation and emotional disconnect.  Her most recent ex-boyfriend Jeremy, is an English stunner with questionable morals (he cheated on her for 6 months before she found out) who badly wants to to re-establish their relationship, aided and abetted by Nicky's mother.  Nicky has a quirky, lovable cousin, Louise, who is like a sister to her and runs a successful matchmaking agency.  Nicky's somewhat smarmy boss, Ron, concerned brothers, a close male cousin who shares an unackowledged love with Louise, but is engaged to Betsey, who is all wrong for him, and her interfering mother round out Nicky's immdiate family.  All of them are delightful additions to the mix.

Nicky is assigned to travel to RI from her home in Washington, DC to handle the PR for a threatened nurses strike, a strike being adeptly handles by none other than Tony Boltanski, Nicky's former love.  The details surrounding the strike, the personal situations of the participants and the PR working that go on behind the scenes, are fascinating.  All of the characters are colorful and, amazingly, both believable and, somehow, lovable.  I can't wait for Bartolomeo's next novel to come out!

THE PRODIGAL WIFE (Marcia Willett)

Sometimes the word "twee" comes to mind when I am reading Marcia Willett.  I find her books sweet and relaxing, peopled with real individuals who are just a bit stilted but very human and imperfect.  In this novel the title character is Maria, a recent widow who years ago left her husband and young son, Jolyon, to live with the love of her life, taking her younger son, Edward, with her.  Now that her husband is dead and Edward has lost much of her money in a bad investment and left for greener pastures in America with his girlfriend, Maria is alone and at loose ends.  She seeks to reconnect with her previous life by visiting the Keep, home of her former husband Hal and son Jolyon.  Hal is now married the love of HIS life, Fliss, a widow and his first cousin, from whom he was separated (romantically) by his family years before.  Jolyon is a well-known entrepreneur and television personality who has very mixed feelings about his mother's new interest in him and in the Keep.  As he finds himself falling in love with Henrietta, daughter of old family friend Cordelia (herself embroiled in a romantically intriguing situation), Jolyon tries to deal with his mother and establish a role for her in his life.  In addition to all of the family angst, Willett also creates an interesting and mysterious subplot involving Cordelia and her lover.

Willett's characters are a sometimes a little bit shallow and under-developed and the outcomes of their problems a little bit too neat, but I love her books.  Picture yourself in an English cottage on a gray day with a roaring fire to dispel the damp, a cup of tea and some scones fresh from the Aga, and a couple of large dogs and a pair of wellies by the door.  If this scenario appeals to you, so will Willett!

CUPID & DIANA (Christina Bartolomeo)

After I read "Snowed In" I started looking for more novels by Bartolomeo.  The subtitle of this one is "A novel about finding the right man, the right career, and the right outfit", which screams chick-lit, I will admit, but Bartolomeo's characters and plots are so much richer and involving than most mainstream chick-lit.  In this novel Diana Campanella is in a comfortable relationship with Philip, an aristocratic lawyer with an impeccable pedigree and impossibly high social standards.  Two years ago Diana left her steady but boring job to buy a vintage clothing consignment shop, which seems to be going down the tubes at the moment.  She and Philip are unofficially engaged (i.e. they talk about eventually marrying), but her family doesn't like him and he doesn't seem to have much interest in her shop or her career ambitions.  Philip's family is equally dismissive of earthy, Italian Diana, whose ethnic looks and vintage wardrobe are foreign to their pure WASP culture.  Diana feels that she and Philip are very compatible and comfortable,  at least until she is introduced to recently separated lawyer Harry by her sister Cynthia, a wildly successful international model.

This is a wonderful novel about impossible families, sibling rivalry, sisterly bonds, self-esteem, trying to fit in, and the delights of true love.  I'm sorry I finished it because I didn't want it to end!

BALTIMORE BLUES (Laura Lippman)

Tess Monaghan is an unemployed reporter who survives financially by working part-time for various relatives.  She is, by her own admission, a mediocre rower, but each morning she hits the river with her friend, Rock Paxton, for a rowing workout on Baltimore's Patapsco River.  It's not that I found Tess completely unlikable, but as sleuths go she does not inspire confidence, nor do her personal values (she smokes pot and sleeps frequently with a former boyfriend who is now in a relationship with someone else) make her an appealing character. 

Despite her lack of experience as a private investigator, Rock hires Tess to tail his girlfriend, Ava, an aspiring lawyer who works as an assistant to controversial lawyer Michael Abramowitz.  Rock believes that Ava is in trouble and wants Tess to find out why.  What Tess uncovers possibly plays a large role in Abramowicz's murder and Rock, due to his relationship with Ava, becomes the prime suspect.  Rock's lawyer, Tyner, uses Tess to investigate further in hopes of clearing Rock's name, or at least finding enough evidence to cast doubt on his guilt.

I had very mixed feeling about this novel, but I will have to admit that Tess comes through with flying colors in the end.  I have read that her inept investigative techniques do improve in future novels of this series and they certianly do get better as the story progresses. As a lead character she has a lot of flaws, but so do some of the best sleuths in popular crime literature.  There is definite promise here.

THE BEACH STREET KNITTING SOCIETY AND YARN CLUB (Gil McNeil)

One thing that struck me about this book, aside from the fact that I thoroughly enjoyed it, is to wonder about the title.  The knitting group in this novel is called "Stitch and Bitch", although Jo McKenzie's yarn shop IS located on Beach Street, though.  Strange!

That being said, McNeil's novel is wonderful, a series of glimpses into a year in the life of a British wife and mother whose husband is killed in an automobile accident just after telling her that he is leaving her for another woman.  Amidst the confusion of dealing with sudden widowhood and raising two small boys on her own, Jo, an expert knitter, decides to move back to the seaside town of her youth and take over running her grandmother's old fashioned yarn shop.  Jo is refreshing, dealing diplomatically with her grandmother's longtime assistant who prefers tradition to change, providing encouragement and friendship to a famous movie star that happens into her shop one day, and interacting with her long-time friend, Ellen, a local celebrity.  Jo is not desperately looking for love or immobilized with grief or regrets.  She is practical, loyal to her friends, realistic about money and family (including her adorable grandmother, her active sons, and her "crap" mother), and approaches every part of her life with a sense of humor.  She is endearing, just the type of friend I would like to have.  McNeil manages to combine self-deprecation, practicality, intelligence, and charm into one woman who is not not necessarily looking for someone to take care of her or complete her life.  This story is an uplifing tale of friendship, family, and survival.  I loved it and I can't wait for the next installment, Needles and Pearls, due out this spring!

SNOWED IN (Christina Bartolomeo)

Sophie Quinn and her husband, Paul Stoddard, experience culture (and climate) shock when they move from Washington, DC to Portland, Maine for a year for Paul's career.  Sophie is by nature meek and non-confrontational, and making friends is a problem until she meets Stephen, a charming and talkative gay man, at a coffee shop and joins his walking group.  Through her friendship with the group and with Stephen's brother and business partner, Ned, Sophie's small world begins to expand.  She purchases a car and hones her driving skills with the help of Ned, venturing out on foot and by highway to new areas around Portland, gaining confidence as her free-lance art career takes off and her social circle expands.  In the meantime, Sophie's marriage to to uncommunicative Paul deteriorates as he buries himself in his work and, perhaps, in the arms of his co-worker, Natalie. 

Bartolomeo's novel is charming.  Her characters are appealing and realistic.  I plan to read another of  this author's novels ASAP.  I really liked this one!

DEATH OF A VALENTINE (M.C. Beaton)

Hamish MacBeth fans will not want to miss this 25th book in M.C. Beaton's Scottish series.  Hamish is once again headed for the altar, this time with his new constable, Josie McSween.  When Lammas Queen Annie Fleming is blown up by a letter bomb, Hamish investigates with the help of new, love-struck assistant, Josie, whose focus is more on landing the handsome policeman than on solving the case.  Will Hamish finally settle down to domestic bliss in his beloved highlands?  What about love-of-his-life Priscilla, or sometimes-love Elspeth Grant?  As usual, Hamish sees through the chaos of life in Lochdubh to solve the murder.  Can he also solve the mystery of love?

THE DOCTOR'S DAUGHTER (Hilma Wolitzer)

Alice Brill, the doctor's daughter, is in her fifties, somewhat uncomfortably married, and the mother of three grown children, a downsized editor who now works for herself as a "book doctor", editing works in progress for aspiring authors.  The passion and communication are gone from her once happy marriage and her youngest son has ethical issues that help to drive a wedge between Alice and her husband, Everett.  Alice's mother, Helen, a poet, died of cancer when Alice was a graduate student.  Her father, Sam, once a brilliant surgeon, is now confined to a nursing home with dementia.  Alice and Everett's marriage cannot, in Alice's mind, live up to the "perfection" of her parents' union.  Alice and Everett's relationship began with competition (Alice and Everett were once both aspiring writers) that blossomed into passion, but Sam Brill wanted Alice to marry a doctor, to form a partnership like that shared between her parents.  Throughout her marriage (Everett ends up working in the family printing business) Alice, an only child, is cognizant of the fact that she has failed to live up to the idealized standard set by her father and mother.

Throughout Wolitzer's novel the reader is treated to something out of the ordinary.  Alice is not focused primarily on repairing her marriage or interfering in the lives of her children.  There is no "crisis" that compels her and Everett to realize what they might have to lose.  She experiences a vague "pain" in her chest, not physical but emotional or psychological, an emptiness or unidentifiable longing that prompts her to set out on a quest to discover what subconscious event is driving her marriage and current life off of its proscribed course.  Bit by bit Alice recovers the memory that has set her at odds with herself and with her father and she is able to move on with her life, always the doctor's daughter, but now with a new understanding of what that means. The unattainable perfection that she saw in her parents' marriage may not be the answer to a happy life for Alice and Everett.

BEST FRIENDS FOREVER (Jennifer Weiner)

In the 15 years since her painful high school sojourn, Addie Downs has transformed herself from an overweight misfit into a lovely, fit, but still awkward woman.  Her life, until now devoted to redecorating her parents' home and caring for her brain damaged brother, changes suddenly when childhood best friend Valerie, now a TV weather girl with delusions of grandeur, shows up on Addie's doorstep one evening.  Valerie has come from their high school reunion and is covered with blood.  For some reason Addie readily agrees to help Valerie find out what happened to her old high school flame Dan Swansea, whom Valerie left naked in a parking lot and possibly dead after accidentally hitting him with her car.  Despite the fact that Addie has not seen Valerie since high school, they embark on a Thelma and Louise type journey that involves a psuedo bank robbery, a disillusioned cop, and facing the trauma of the past that destroyed their relationship.  While on the lam they rediscover their friendship while local authorities try to find out whose blood is on the belt in the parking lot, what happened to the victim, and whether or not a crime has been committed.

Valerie is wacky and out of control while Addie is practical and down-to-earth, two opposites who bonded initially because they were outsiders, in part due to their family situations.  Valerie's single mother is an irresponsible dreamer who failed to notice that her daughter needed meals and clean clothes.   Addie's mother, now deceased, was generous and practical, but embarrassingly (to her children) obese, and her disabled brother, a once popular athlete, was brain-injured in an automobile accident.  This is story of two damaged people who gradually come to terms with their past and future.  Weiner has another winner here.

SIX STROKES UNDER (Roberta Isleib)

I am not a fan of golf.  I am bad at it, really bad.  I had to take golf as part of a gym class back in college in the 70's, and it was NOT a high point of my life!  That being said, Isleib's book is a pleasant surprise.  The author thoughtfully includes a comprehensive glossary of common golfing terms at the beginning of the novel, which is very helpful in allowing the non-golfing reader to enjoy the mystery without feeling as if they are in a completely foreign world. 

Cassie Burdette is about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime, the LPGA's Q-School, which could qualify her to participate in the LPGA tour.  Before she is scheduled to leave, she discovers the dying Dr. Bencher, a psychologist who has been involved in helping patients "recover" memories of sexual abuse.  Dr Bencher's office is in the same building as that of Cassie's therapist and he has been shot in the neck in his office.  Despite the fact that she has no connection with Dr. Bencher, Cassie immediately becomes a person of interest in the crime, but is allowed to travel to Florida for Q-School providing that she checks in with the odious Officer Pate when she arrives.  Cassie is an interesting character, flawed and colorful.  As Q-School progresses readers are introduced to quite a few enjoyably quirky characters, golfers and non-golfers alike, and along the way another murder is comitted.  Are the two crimes connected?  Will Cassie get out of Q-School without becoming the 3rd victim of this murder spree, if the crimes are actually connected?  Read and find out!  Don't let the golf theme put you off if you are not a fan of the game. I do have one word of caution, though.  Isleib is a delightful writer, but the crimes themselves seem to be a bit disconnected from the main Q-School story.  I (and the other members of the Christie Capers) think that Ms. Isleib might have done better (and perhaps will in future novels) to keep the murders directly connected to golf and the Q-School.  The murders themselves seem a bit contrived when the novel is considered as a whole because they are separate from the main theme of the novel, golf.  That being said, I am actually enjoying my new golf knowledge and I am happy to have discovered an interesting new author in Roberta Isleib!

ALL THINGS AT ONCE (Mika Brzezinski)

During the time that Mika Brzezinski was a reporter and news anchor in the Hartford  area, she married, had her first child, and then moved on to, presumably, bigger and better things in the the New York metro news market.  Today she is co-host on MSNBC's Morning Joe, well paired with conservative Joe Scarborough.  This very readable memoir, which covers the major events of her childhood and the pitfalls and rewards of trying to "have it all", should be required reading for anyone who yearns for the glamour and excitement of a career in television news, and especially for any woman who wants marriage and a family in addition to a successful career in broadcasting or any other field.

Brzezinski is well-grounded.  Her parents, a former National Security Advisor and a talented sculptor, raised her in an atmosphere of intellectual richness and instilled her and her two brothers with an admirable work ethic and solid values,  Her life has not been a fairy tale, but her own commitment to marriage and career has enabled her to overcome setbacks that might have caused a different type of person to choose another path.  The book opens with a description of Mika's horrific fall down a flight of stairs with her infant daughter in her arms, a fall caused by total exhaustion and resulting in months of medical treatments for her daughter, whose leg was broken .  Initially doctors suspected a spinal injury and Brzezinski was investigated for child abuse as a result of the incident.  She makes no excuses for the accident and expresses both profound regret and vast relief over the outcome.  This accident was a wake-up call, jarring her into the realization that no one can work for 24 hours a day at a job and as a mother, and that she needed to pull back and take a look at what she was doing to herself and her family.  Her fabulous, understanding husband hovers in the background of the story throughout.

Mika Brzezinski is a woman who has worked hard, personally and professionally, not just at a career, but at her life.  She has been the victim of an attack by a pedophile, the privileged daughter of a government official, a struggling reporter, a loved and cherished daughter, wife, and mother, a down and out has-been, and a confident on-air partner.  Most of all, she has been and is a work in progress.  Her book is a wonderful insight into real life, its rewards and consequences, its ups and downs.  Two-way strong family ties are and always have been at the center of her life.  I hope that she gives us an update in twenty years or so.

THE SCHOOL FOR ESSENTIAL INGREDIENTS (Erica Bauermeister)

This wonderful and totally appetizing little book is actually a series of vignettes rather than a "novel", stories of eight people brought together for a monthly cooking class.  The author focuses attention on one of these people during each chapter, each a different class.  The stories are blended together seamlessly into a delightful experience for all of the senses as the characters chop, sauté, fold, and season ingredients into delectable feasts for the heart and soul as well as for the palate.  Each character has experienced a loss, a disappointment, a trauma, or a lack of focus in their life and through the experience of creating meals that nourish in every sense of the word, they work their way towards answers, acceptance, and life-changing friendships.

This novel opens up a whole new world for those of us who have never thought of cooking as a creative and even life-affirming activity.  Bauermeister's descriptions of each class are a feast in themselves.  The characters are vulnerable and likable.  I think that the author has a rare and wonderful talent for providing brief glimpses into her character's lives that are simultaneously satisfying and unfulfilling, like briefly meeting someone that you'd like to know better and then losing sight of them in a crowd.  This is a charming, short homage to both the culinary world (your mouth will water!) and the resilience of the human spirit.

MORE THAN YOU KNOW (Beth Gutcheon)

Gutcheon's novels are always exceptional, and each one is unique in theme and setting.  "More Than You Know" is a ghost story, a love story, a historical novel, and much more.  Gutcheon manages to juxtapose vividly the stark coldness of life and an unhappy marriage on a barren island more than 100 years ago with the excitement of young love and the terror of unexplained phenomena in Depression-era Maine.  The novel spans many years, alternating between the life, marriage, and family of Claris Haskell and the budding romance between young Hannah Gray and Conary Crocker, both of whom have witnessed the chilling apparition that seems to haunt both the schoolhouse-turned-cottage that Hannah's grim stepmother and mostly absent father are renting for the summer, and deserted Beals Island, off the coast of Maine. During the course of the novel we learn, along with Hannah, the story of the brutal murder of Danial Haskell, Claris' husband, and their daughter Sallie's inconclusive trials for his murder.  Gutcheon begins and ends with Hannah as a very old woman, widowed now and in the twilight of her years.  Hannah acts as a sort of narrator, ensuring that the story is finally told before she is no longer able to tell it.

I read this book over a weekend.  It is short (268 pages), intriguing, and definitely worthwhile.  I recommend it wholeheartedly to both adults and teens.  Gutcheon maintains the suspense of the story right up until the end, when we finally discover the truth about the horrifying apparition that haunts Hannah and Conary.